Swedish Pickled Herring

Herring spoils so fast it is almost always eaten salted, pickled or smoked. I’ve eaten (and made) herring in all these forms, but there is something special that makes pickled herring so popular, especially in Northern Europe.

I think it’s because the acidic twang of the vinegar and lemon counteract the rich fattiness of the herring fillets — these fish are among the foods highest in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. The addition of spices, sugar and onion add a personal touch.

This particular recipe is for Swedish glasmastarsill, or glassblower’s herring. Why it is called that I have no idea. Best I can tell it is because this pickle is always put up in glass jars, with the silvery skin of the herring facing outward. Let’s face it, folks: For a pickled little bony fish, this is as pretty as it gets.

Most pickled herring recipes start with pre-salted herring — the kind that come in cans. If you use these, skip the salt in the initial brine and soak the fish in fresh water overnight. They’ll still be plenty salty.

Having some salt in the fish is important: I once made this recipe with fresh herring that I failed to brine, and they turned to mush within 2 weeks. A disaster. You need the salt to extract extra moisture from the fish and keep them firm.

I like these just as a snack, with pumpernickel or rye bread, potatoes of any kind, hard-boiled eggs — or just on a cracker.

Swedish Pickled Herring

A classic recipe for Swedish pickled herring called glasmastarsill, or glassblower's herring. Herring, sardines, smelt or whitefish can all be pickled this way

Prep Time30mins

Cook Time0mins

Course: Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine: Scandinavian

Keyword: herring, pickled foods

Servings: 12

Calories: 95kcal

Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients

1/4cupkosher salt

5cupswater,divided

1poundherring fillets

2cupsdistilled or white wine vinegar

1/4cupsugar

1teaspoonmustard seed

2teaspoonswhole allspice

2teaspoonsblack peppercorns

3bay leaves

3cloves

1lemon,thinly sliced

1medium red onionthinly sliced

Instructions

Heat 4 cups of water enough to dissolve salt. Let this brine cool to room temperature. When it does, submerge the herring fillets in the brine and refrigerate overnight, or up to 24 hours. Meanwhile, bring the sugar, vinegar, the remaining cup of water and all the spices to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let this steep until cool.

When the herring have brined, layer them in a glass jar with the sliced lemon and red onion. Divide the spices between your containers if you are using more than one. Pour over the cooled pickling liquid and seal the jars. Wait at least a day before eating. Store in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet's largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

This is the same recipe that my dad used. The only difference was that he used fresh herring and the milk glands were removed from the fish and used as part of the brine. So I am sure you had to make sure you had so many female fish in the batch. I can’t get fresh herring in Wyoming. So I haven’t had any homemade in years.

Can you pressure can this after making without ruining the texture of the fish? It would also take bones out of the picture which would be nice. I’m thinking of trying it with alewives. Just hoping to make it last longer. And without refrigeration.

Hi Hank, I have been meaning to write and tell you how wonderful this recipe is. I have made it about five times now. I make mine in a half gallon glass jar and usually cut the herring in chunks. This is the best recipe I found since I ate my dads special recipe years ago. He has been gone four years now so I got to make my own these days. But this recipe is so much like the taste of his pickled herring. Thats a great memory for me. Thanks for sharing and I notice you have some good smoking recipes. We ordered a smoker last week, it should be here any day so I will be checking out your recipes and trying lots of them for sure, Thanks again from Newfoundland Canada, Linda

I need some clarification on your instructions please. I’m assuming you put the salt in the four cups of hot water and that makes the first brine. Then drain it? Rinse it? And then put in jars with “pickling” sugary brine? “Pour over the cooled pickling liquid”…you mean pour the cooled pickling brine over the fish and spices in the jars, correct? Thank you.

I accidently did not let the salt water cool all the way (only 20 minutes) before adding the herring. The water was still hot. Is it okay to carry on and eat the herring, or does the temperature make the fish unsafe to pickle/eat now?

Hi! Cut the herring in pieces instead:) You can also change it a bit by adding sliced carrot yellow onion sliced leek and red onion. Put in layers, onion herring leek carrots etc until the jar is full. I haven’t done it with white wine vinegar, we always use spirit vinegar, 12%. I’m Swedish and I have pickled my own herring since I was like 20 years old 🙂 love it! Good luck!

Is Herring the only fish that can be pickled? You mentioned its good because of the fatty content of the herring but I don’t know if I’ve heard of any other fish being as popular pickled as the Herring. I have never tried it myself, I don’t eat seafood too often – but I love pickled foods. Maybe this has to be next in line on my list!

I’m trying this recipe with freshly caught herrings, I scaled, gutted and filleted them and they have been soaking in cold salty water for about 15 hours now… is this the brine process? Am I doing the right thing? I can’t find a recipe to pickle herring if you catch them yourself

Thanks for the answers! Joseph- I’ve had the canned kippers before and whatever it was I had in the restaurant was a far cry from those. The canned kippers I’ve had were definitely of a hot smoked flakey kind of texture and the herring in the restaurant was like a cross between pickled and cold smoked fish. Very tasty 🙂 I’d love to hear about that shad recipe. I read somewhere that an Indian story told of how a porcupine- being either punished or hidden- was turned inside out and placed in the rivers and sea. Thus, the shad was born!

The pickling process dissolves the fine bones of the herring. pickling will soften the back bone but not dissolve it. The stronger the vinegar concentration the more the bones soften or dissolve. The smoked herring you had was likely kippered herring. a process that dissolves the bones as well. There is also a very slow baking technique for shad that could be used for herring, the process dissolves the shad bones. Shad are a larger cousin of herring.

Does this process make the bones dissolve? I smoked some herring we caught last year and they were delicious but a ton of tiny bones. I never remember finding bones in pickled herring though…was wondering if fthe vinegar dissolved them. Also do the jars have to be sealed with the boiling method or are you just screwing the lid shut? Last question- I’ve had smoked herring in restaurants that had no bones…were these maybe pickled first then smoked? I really hate bones…can ya tell? Thanks!!

I don’t use white sugar at all. I keep bees so honey is my main sweetener and I occasionally use blackstrap molasses or brown sugar depending on the recipe. I noticed a comment about omitting the sugar, could honey be used as a substitute? How about a milder vinegar maybe. I have homemade persimmon vinegar which might be better without the sugar. I will probably try it with sardines since they’re easy to come by where I live. Any advice would be appreciated.

Caught a lot of herring about a week ago in the Long Island sound (great fishing). I had them in brine for a day then put them in the pickling solution . How long should I wait before eating and how long will they last?

I just caught a bunch of herring from the Long Island Sound and have the fillets in brine as per your recipe. Do you brine and pickle fresh fillets? I’ve seen a few warnings about needing to freeze or cook the fillets to kill any parasites. What are your thoughts? Are these warnings only for freshwater fish?

GREAT blog! Now, SILL (herring). Commonly, we use ready-brined sill. It should be really salty, so it has to be rinsed for a few hours (or change to fresh water every half hour). Taste the fish. It should be salty, but edible. Then, put it the brine, which is made of 3 parts water, 2 parts sugar and 1 part attika (see below). This sits for two days in the fridge. Now you can make the actual sill. It’s the acidity and the salt that makes it able to store, but the traditional swedish herring is also quite sweet. We use something called “attika” or “attikssprit” instead of vinegar. This is sort of a vinegar on really illegal steroids. There are two common brands: Winborgs and Perstorp. If you live in a big city (or in Minnesota) you could probably find this in the US. This is kinda important if you want the geniune swedish taste!

The classical swedish flavourings include: yellow or red unions, horseradish, leeks, bayleaf, allspice, mustard seeds, dill, whole pepper, carrots and cloves. There are no rules. We are not italians here. There has actually been some crazy sill variations seen on christmas tables the last ten years. Asian style, with cilantro, lime and chili. Vanilla, BBQ-sauce, pesto and mango are all experiments that should have stayed on the idea stage… My personal favorites include all sorts of “creamy” sill. These will store only for a day or two in the fridge – but you probably won’t have to. For example: acidic red apple, plenty-o-fresh-grated-horseradish, chives and sourcream. Or caviar, creme fraiche, chopped red union and dill!

One well hidden secret is the matjessill. Originally dutch, it is now a very common sill on the swedish midsummer. If you find it, try this recipe and nothing else. You will die and go to heaven: Matjessill, hard boiled eggs, finely chopped red onion, fresh dill, and the most important: plenty of well browned butter on top. Serve with fresh potatoes. Aaahh. Good luck 🙂

This recipe is great! I live in Sweden and it was right on for my guests at Midsummer. I also made a special fusion flavor for herring for Jul (Christmas) it’s a spicy Korean Kimchee herring… really good! I make a video for it… you can find that and the recipe on my blog here: http://www.americulinariska.com/2014/12/11/pickled-herring/

To Ken Albala – You can probably catch Jack Smelt from a pier in Stockton, they are very like herring and bite well on raw shrimp or bacon. Fishing from a pier in Bodega Bay, CA, two people brought in 27 fish between a foot and 18″ long, in one morning. Pickled with onion and lemon per the Glasmastersil recipe, they filled 10 quart mason jars with tasty beauty! I tasted them on day two and found them edible but the bones had not yet dissolved. We cut up our Jack Smelt into quarter inch thick steaks. The Fish and Game website says pickling does not kill roundworms, so microwave the fish on high for two minutes and let them cool before serving them. Leave out half the sugar in this recipe for a more savory fish. If you have a garden, put the heads, tails, and guts in a covered bucket with water and let it decay into liquid fish. Dilute this heavily with more water before using it on your garden. Corn and pumpkins prosper with some of this fertilizer a couple of times a month through the summer. While fishing, I saw a big halibut chasing the small smelt. You might want to bring two rods, one for smelt and one with a halibut rig, if you go fishing for your pickling fish.

Grew up on the Isle of Man where herring was the main source of protein. My mother made the Manx version of pickled herring. The herring were boned, rolled and cooked in a mixture of vinegar, water, sugar and spices, in the oven, Result were beautifully firm and tasty fish usually eaten cold with salad.Probably Australian pilchards could be used in this manner

Jesse: So you are in Virginia? Hmm… Scale the hickories but leave the skin on, remove the ribs and cut them into strips before pickling. That will open up more surface area to the vinegar. Hopefully it will work.

It’s herring season in San Francisco, and the commercial harvest here takes only the roe for sushi and grinds the rest up for chicken feed, what a waste. Still, i managed to get a few pounds and tried this recipe. Wow. It makes the best pickled herring i ever ate. Many thanks.

Have some very fresh mackerel I’m about to try this recipe with. Planning a Scandinavian inspired feast with lots of home-grown/local ingredients for big family meal over Christmas hols. Hoping a bit of preserving and pickling now will make for a relaxed day next week. Thanks for lots of inspiration.

We never used vinegar for pickled herring. I always add whey from raw soured milk & salt, and leave it to ferment in a warm place for a day, then move it to the fridge. I think vinegar is just an imitation of the acidity created via lacto-fermentation.

Followed recipe used lime instead of lemon only because i had lime. Caught the herring fresh, plenty in Australia waters. Have only tasted batch after 4 days. Nice very impressed with taste ,but i think i need to wait just a little longer for full picking to get in to fish. The fish i caught were about 350grams and when filletted the thickest part of fillet is about 8mm thick. I take out all bones. The fish when tasted after 4 days was firm and had good taste. i think for good pickling sometines you have to wait a bit. (Sometimes hard) like wine you need a lot so you have some for later. Will comment in aweek or so.

i made this a week ago, using brined herring from http://www.nordichouse.com. (very very high quality brined herring–steep shipping, but if you order a lot of herring, it’s not so shocking.) some thoughts on the recipe in no particular order: 1) if you’re using brined herring (or salted herring), before pickling you’ll need to soak the herring in a couple changes of cold, fresh water–overnight, maybe longer. taste the fish–it should be salty, but not unbearably salty. (the saltiness will dissipate more as you pickle–the salt will equalize with the pickling brine; notice that the recipe doesn’t call for salt. if you’re using fresh herring you’ll need to add salt to the pickle.) 2) the recipe makes WAY TOO MUCH pickling juice–not the worst sin imaginable, but if you pack the herring carefully, you’ll end up throwing out at least half the pickling liquid if you use the proportions called for in the recipe. 3) lemons. my pickle is slightly bitter, more so than i care for, due to the amount of pith from the sliced lemons. if i had it to do over again, i’d carefully zest the lemons with a peeler, then remove the white pith and discard it. i’d add the meat of the lemons, and the zest (in large pieces).

I’m about to make my first batch of pickled herring and this discussion has been very useful. My mother was Swedish, and it just isn’t a real holiday or major family get-together without my bowl of herring.

I have always bought jars of herring and mixed them with sour cream and sweet sliced onions. The last time I did it, I emptied a large jar of herring into a glass bowl, added more sweet onions, a couple cloves of crushed and minced garlic, red wine vinegar and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.

After a day, I drained and mixed with low fat sour cream and served on Triscuits. Wow.

I was recently in Sweden and had the most incredible herring in a creamy sauce with curry. Any ideas on what else might have been in it? I’ve never heard of a curry sauce for picked herring but it was to die for.

This past weekend I went out with my friend Jack and we fished with throw-nets and came home with 30 or so blueback herring. We split them evenly; I froze six to make stegte sild (pan-fried and marinated in a sweet pickling brine) and the rest I cleaned, chunked, and brined, and when I got home I made the Danish version of glasmastersill (which call glarmester sild). Same as yours, Hank, though with some leeks added and a slightly different ratio of vinegar to sugar to water. Nearly the same though!

Charlotte: if you’re interested in learning how Danes preserve herring, you can put this URL into Google’s Danish -> English translator and get a decent idea.

If you want to find more resources, the keywords are saltsild, høstsild, spegesild and the Danish for “how do I make” is “hvordan laver jeg.”

This is just a thing of beauty! I have ben driving myself crazy trying to find raw fresh herring in Stockton, with no luck. It just isn’t the same with sardines or other little fish. Just not fat enough. I know you fished for these, but do you know if they can be bought somewhere in the Bay area?

SeattleDee: They are EASY to fillet! And you don’t need to deal with the teeny bones within the fillets because they are so small — the vinegar dissolves them to the point where you don’t even notice them.

You make it sound tempting, but I learned my lesson long ago – let someone else do the work! Perhaps I’ll use your recipe in Petersburg this year IF there’s an easier way to debone those silver critters.

Should one have to order 20 lbs, is there a way to store these that doesn’t involve the fridge? Can they be canned in a hot water bath? I’d imagine pressure canning would ruin the texture … but for those of us who don’t want to waste the electricity on an extra fridge (and who even feel a little guilty about the standing freezer in the basement) — what to do? They’ve been pickling herring for hundreds of years before there were refrigerators … any ideas?

MNAngler: Thanks for sharing! We can’t get pike here in California, so it’s good to see someone else’s experience.

Cathy: I think you just add sour cream. I don’t like pickled herring in cream, so I don’t make it. Sorry!

Amelia: Thanks! Crossing my fingers for a win at IACP this summer! As for other fishies, yes, this will work with sardines, large anchovies, teeny mackerel, Great Lakes whitefish, big smelt, etc.

Heather: Never tried that, but brining the fish keeps them pretty firm for a month or so.

Maria: Heh. I think you are about as far away from herring as is humanly possible. There must be some sort of little fish that lives around Australia, though.

Olenka: You need to ask your fish market over and over and over, and be willing to but 20 pounds if need be; that happens a lot with special orders. See the comments above for other fish that will work with this besides herring.

great little gifts to bring over at friends. Must be delicious on toasted sourbread toast. do you think it would be good with other small blue fish, like anchovies? P.s. congrats on the recent nomination!

These jars are gorgeous! I love pickled herring, but have a serious yen for the creamed pickled herring my grandmother made (recipe lost to time – so sad!) Would you just drain these and add onions and sour cream? Or is it a different recipe altogether?

Florian: If you do this with shad, slice the fillets into 1-2 inch strips. That will open up more surface area to dissolve the many bones.

Paul: That’d be cool! I know the Swedes do something like this, only I can’t remember what its name is, exactly.

Scott: Yes, only cut the fillets into thin strips, and remember pike have an extra set of bones. Do you know the “triple fillet” technique with pike? You get three long thin fillets, one on either side of the fish below the extra bones, then one on top that starts where the extra bones begin. Works like a charm with pike.

Carolina: Oooh, you have bluebacks in the Roanoke, too? God I miss those fish.

I’d love to see how the fish looks if you cooked some diced beet in the pickling liquid to extract the red color and then pickled the fish in the resultant red pickle juice. I’ve got a few jars of quail eggs I did that way and they’re a beautiful pink color through the white.